Syrian Navy in the context of Israeli invasion of Syria (2024–present)

The Syrian Arab Armed Forces (SAAF; Arabic: القوات المسلحة العربية السورية, romanized: al-Quwwāt al-Musallaḥah al-ʿArabīyah as-Sūrīyah) were the combined armed forces of Ba'athist Syria from 1963 to 2024. They served during the rule of the Ba'ath Party in Syria.

The SAAF consisted of the Syrian Arab Army, Syrian Arab Air Force, Syrian Arab Air Defense Force, Syrian Arab Navy. According to the 2012 Constitution of Syria, the President of Syria was the Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces. The Minister of Defence held the position of Deputy Commander-in-chief of the Army and Armed Forces.

Following the fall of the Assad regime on 8 December 2024, Israel invaded the buffer zone in southwestern Syria (adjacent to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights) and has continued to occupy it. Israel also carried out an aerial bombing campaign to cripple the new Syrian Armed Forces, and demanded that it stay out of southern Syria. Israel's government claimed this was to thwart any "potential threat" from post-war Syria.

Israel took advantage of the power vacuum created by the fall of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad to increase the amount of territory it controlled by several hundred square miles. Israel declared the 1974 Agreement on Disengagement with Ba'athist Syria to be void. Israel initially said this new invasion would be "temporary", but later said it would hold onto the territory for an "unlimited time". Israel also launched extensive aerial and naval strikes on Syrian military targets across the country, under an operation codenamed Operation Arrow of Bashan (Hebrew: מבצע חץ הבשן, romanized: Mivtza Ḥetz HaBashan). Israel's campaign crippled Syria's military capabilities, including its army and its navy, and destroyed its chemical weapons stockpiles.